Kol Koleinu 2024-2025 Capstone Projects

“My intent was to create a documentary giving a closer look at mental health among young kids because I struggled with severe anxiety when I was younger. I’m proud of even starting this and sharing with others why I was motivated to create it because for a long time I felt a lot of shame surrounding my experiences with mental health and anxiety. I think I learned more about time management because it was something that I struggled with a lot.”

“We planned our launch meeting to support Queer Jewish teens in the Philadelphia area. A lot of people have said they would appreciate having a space. The flyer we posted on Instagram has received a lot of support and we have a good number of interested members. We are proud of how we built a community of intersectionality and used our queer and Jewish identities to create something impactful. We learned that publicizing an event is a lot of work that needs planning in advance in order to be successful.”

“We surveyed Jewish people from all over the US (all races, genders, and geographic locations) about their Jewish Identities, feelings towards the Israel/Palestine conflict, social media usage, and mental health. We used this data, collected from 117 total respondents, to write an op-ed about our findings and place an emphasis on unity and mutual understanding in this time of despair for Jewish people. This will be published in jGirls+ Magazine and shared back to all of the survey’s respondents. Overall, we consider it a very successful project and are excited to see what response our work will elicit! I am very proud of the quantity and diversity of the demographics of our survey’s respondants.”

“For my project, I wrote an op-ed that focused on analyzing rabbinical teachings and modern-day discussions to create my own understanding of the rights to an abortion through Jewish tradition and teachings. My audience for this piece is anyone interested in learning more about religious views on the rights to an abortion. Writing my op-ed went very successfully and I am very proud of my work. Although I am still perfecting my piece, I hope that when it is shared publicly it will have a very positive impact, sharing information and starting conversation in my Jewish community. I think my organization and careful compiling of research helped me to successfully combine the information that I learned during this process with my individual opinions. I learned more about Rabbinic texts and how to analyze them. I also learned the structure of an op-ed and how to write an opinion piece.”

“I designed the cover for the red cards distributed in my state that inform immigrants of their rights. They inform immigrants or citizens of their rights in the event of an ICE raid or other interaction with the government. These cards are printed in 14 languages. I used some of my own money to print some, had the company send me some, and gave them to my friends to hand out. I also gave them out at an art show. I’m most proud of the fact that my design will be distributed on these cards, and I will be able to put it on portfolios and my résumé. And the fact that I will be making a change and hopefully informing some immigrants on their rights so that they can at least have one form of defense against the unjust ICE raids. I learned how important it is to help in any way that you can.”

“My project is an op-ed about the inequalities in the support that private versus public school students receive during the college application process. My target audience is students who have observed similar phenomena and educators and parents who can help address this issue. I hope this op-ed will start conversations about this issue. I am most proud of how I was able to use a Jewish text to write about something that is very important to me. I learned that drafting something several times can be very helpful.”

“I gave a presentation to an 8th grade class of about 15 kids. After I presented I had some discussion questions and we talked about them for a bit. The kids were very engaged and I think they learned something new. I am proud of presenting in front of people because that is not something I do very often and I am not very confident about. I learned a lot about partisans because I did not know much about them or stories about specific people so that was very interesting. I also learned how to create an interactive lesson to keep students engaged and interested.”

“We wrote an op-ed using survey results and research to educate, inform, and bring awareness to the many systemic inequities in the American healthcare system. We are hoping for it to be published. Our intended audience is women in low-income communities who may not have access to this information or may be affected by these inequities. I am proud of how many survey responses we got and how we were able to use statistics and research to support our piece. I wasn’t very well educated on the extent of these inequities so I learned a lot of shocking statistics and information about sex education and the healthcare system as a whole throughout the research process.

“I had a lot of fun researching for this project and learning about all of the different traditions. I haven’t gotten to see its impact yet, but my family is planning on using it on our Passover Seder this year. I’m most proud of the research because sometimes it was hard to find information and the research portion definitely took me the longest. I learned so much about the way that smaller Jewish communities formed after the diaspora and how their traditions slightly changed from one another.”

“I wrote a op-ed about the risks of restricting reproductive healthcare. I’m most proud of being able to write and share my thoughts on a topic I care about. I developed my skills at sharing my opinions and fact in a impactful way.”

“Alongside another student from my area, I led a presentation at a local LGBTQ+ conference hosted at my school discussing the impacts of book banning. Then, I identified key counties in my state that the issue impacts the most and led an activity where folks write letters to each one’s school board. I then shipped the letters out. Hopefully, change will be made! I am most proud of being able to work with someone I’d never met before up until recently, and coming up with a wonderful presentation together.”

“I gathered some crafty, feminist temple members to make reusable pads for clients of Samaritan House, a local organization committed to fighting poverty in our community. The event went very well and we made over thirty reusable pads out of recycled materials. I have been in contact with the staff at Samaritan House and they are glad to accept them. At the event, I also shared a presentation with some facts about period poverty both in our community and worldwide. Overall, I think that the event was an immense success and I have already been in communication with my Rabbi about possibly leading a second event. I am most proud of the way I took charge of my project and reached out to many different people asking for what I needed. Although I had a mentor, I had to take a lot of the initiative when scheduling things with my synagogue, gathering materials, and gathering participants.”

“I made a mini zine centering around my experience and beliefs as a Jew and an anti-Zionist. My audience will be my community (ex. school, library) where I will leave copies to take for free. I’m most proud of my ability to articulate my feelings in a condensed format. I learned that sharing from personal experience can be very valuable.”

“We had a group of high school students and older members of my synagogue meet for a mingle and Torah study. It brought together two normally disparate groups within my temple and set the stage for more interaction. I’m proud that I brought together different cohorts and was able to organize a meaningful event. I learned to be better at responding to emails!

“My project was to put an actual policy in place for the rooming on trips at school. It’s not finished yet, but I’ve gotten positive feedback. A teacher is trying to plan a meeting with the head of school to hear me out! I’m proud of this idea and the work I’ve put into it. Although it hasn’t yet come to fruition, I think it’s going to be really great.

“I led two school assemblies, one with a trivia game for a couple boys from each grade about menstruation and the other with a demonstration with period cramp simulators. I also brought in a speaker for a small workshop about femtech and women’s health issues. We are also trying to create a space at school where people can rest when they have cramps and we are going to buy some portable heating pad for girls to check out and wear under their clothes. I am most proud that I have gotten real feedback from students telling me they enjoyed it or wanting to try the simulator themselves. I learned how fun it is working with a teacher and a couple other students to do all these amazing things.